The TV station often produces the portrayal of violent and sexual themes to attract the viewers’ attention. However, these varieties of content are harmful for children’s development. TV should take its responsibility in the socialization process. Analysis Television is a good invention to deliver the information and provide entrainments, and open up a new world for children. Most of children interest at the television set because it provides the voice and colorful video to attract their attention.
Children at Risk: the Consumerist Generation Introduction Consumerism is a global phenomenon, making our generation a buying-and-consuming one (Hill 347). Advertising, tied hand in hand with consumerism, has become such a common part of people’s lives that no one outside of culture is free from the effects of it (Hill 347). Our research is of interest to us because we want to discover how advertisements in the media, particularly in television, affects children in their daily lives by assessing the concrete characteristics of these ads, such as visual images. The features portrayed may suggest their role in shaping the children’s consumer desires. Brad Millington and Brian Wilson claim that although people of young ages, such as young teens around the age of 13, are capable of criticizing media content, they still buy into what is being sold to them.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager Analysis The Secret Life of the American Teenager is a show that portrays a group of stereotypical teenagers, and demonstrates how the act of having sex affects their everyday life. The show, which airs on ABC Family, implies that the only thing teenagers are concerned with is sex. The Secret Life of the American Teenager claims to teach valuable life lessons about relationships and sexual responsibility, but blatantly uses this claim to fool parents into letting their teens watch. The target audience for The Secret Life of the American Teenager is teenage girls. ABC Family has a reputation for showing mostly family friendly content and is trusted by parents.
Whether we realize it or not, mass media surrounds us in our daily lives. Newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and television are all around us and have a very clever yet powerful force on how we view them. The media can be potentially harmful because it conveys certain messages that are supposed to be socially desirable are part of the norms. Adolescents become prime targets of what the media displays because they are new consumers. Advertising is one of the most compelling messengers in a culture that can influence an adolescent.
The typical American teenager encounters thousands of sexual references in the media every year. These references come in the form of television shows, movies, music, advertisements, magazines, and the internet. Although there is frequent criticism concerning the amount of sexual content in the media, it continues to increase. The way sex is portrayed by the media does indeed influence teenage behavior because sex is constantly shown as consequence-free, and gives teens the wrong ideas of body image and gender roles. The media has made body image very important in today’s society.
THE EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING ON AMERICAN YOUTH The Effects of Advertising on American Youth Abstract American youth are in various stages of life where they want to be popular, accepted by their peers, and feel successful; because of these emotions advertisers have targeted American youth as viable consumers. Advertisers exploit children and adolescent’s inability to fully understand the advertisers’ intentions, as they are unable to differentiate between fact and fiction and accept the ads stated value. The use of Pop-culture Icons, Professional athletes, and animated characters help give children and adolescents a false sense of reality and empowerment. Advertising has a wide spread effect on American youth and due to television, magazines, internet, and social media networks; advertisers have increased their targeted market. This increased advertising exposes young consumers to several potentially harmful products and social stereotypes; such as, alcohol, tobacco, and sexually motivated content.
In conjunction with strong sexuality stems the body image issue that plagues young people. I believe that the media has a negative influence of my generation. However, moderation and monitoring is the key to divergence. Research shows media can influence the behaviors of young adults when the content contains those mentioned above. Moreover, according to (insert1), exposure to these types of media is not the only concern.
I’ve seen with my eyes how young children adopt different behaviors just from watching certain television shows. I have also seen how the media affects teenager’s personalities and fiscal activities. Popular culture holds the power to tell children what they should want and/or be in life. Popular culture is intelligent. It targets the basic needs for kids such as self-esteem, society’s acceptance, and beauty.
Teenagers allow the media to influence them so they hopefully become popular and well known. On the other hand, not all aspects of the media are negative. For example, Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer are some of the positive examples of television shows. These shows help many children learn their ABC’s, 123’s, and different languages. Looking at some of the pros and cons of the media will help people understand how much the media can affect the youth and how we can help the youth overcome these influence.
With an influx of self-absorbed thoughts, high awareness of details, and great concern of others opinions, this egocentric stage can possibly cause even more imbalance stress and anxiety in adolescent years. The need to be accepted grows stronger and the invincibility personality starts to take over. Acceptance of peers is important for positive outcome in self-assurance and confidence. Teen peer pressure of being involved in a group or “click” of peers and trying to “fit in” can lead to mal-adaptive behaviors, i.e. Drug use, smoking, sex, breaking laws.